Canadian [Government] Wages Tower Over Private Sector Salaries, CFIB Says

(CEP News – Sean McKibbon)

Federal and provincial government employees make vastly better salaries than their private sector counterparts, a new study by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says.

Wages paid by Canada’s federal government are on average 17.3% higher than what the private sector pays for equivalent jobs, while provincial workers earn on average 7.9% more than their private sector counterparts, the study says.

The wage gap was found using census data for more than 3.7 million full-time employees in 199 occupations. In the federal government, employees are earning an average $60,924 compared to $51,947 in the private sector, the CFIB said. Average annual pay for provincial employees is $52,863 while equivalent private sector workers make $49,002.

The study found the biggest wage gap in Ontario, where there is a $7,000 spread between the average provincial employee wage of $60,656 and the average private sector wage of $53,682 – a difference of 13%.

“We are concerned costs will only continue to be passed on to taxpayers and make it increasingly more difficult for smaller businesses to compete with the public sector in finding qualified staff,” CFIB president Catherine Swift said in a news release that warned the gap will likely widen as the Ontario government enters a new round of collective bargaining talks. The complete CFIB report is available here.